The frequent use of the concept of memory has allowed for the constitution of parallels between individual psychological processes and the idea of a larger, social psyche. From this standpoint, one could recall of the notion of melancholia, and notably of its contemporary depictions in post colonial theory. First described by Sigmund Freud (1856- 1939) in 1917, melancholia corresponds to ―an endlessly repeating remembering, and mourning, as a working through in order to forget‖.104 Within the field of memory studies, the notion was first used to describe the psychological and social legacies of the Holocaust, to be later adapted to other forms of traumatic histories, including the colonization.
Regarding this approach, one could nonetheless argue that although the use of psychoanalysis might indeed constitute a valuable device to better understand the shaping of
102 Bhabha, 1994, p.212 103 Bhabha, 1994, p.201 104 Ward, 2007, p.192
38
memory as a social phenomenon, this approach within the context of African arts exhibitions might however set aside some of the paradoxes imbedded in the objects themselves. Indeed, as it has been evoked in the second chapter of this thesis, a number of works constituting a part of the historical collections were exhibited in museums and as a result, subjected to complex processes of appropriation, interpretation, and even at time physically adapted to suit certain displays. As a result, in addition to the vestiges of former colonial modes of exhibition, notably expressed through problematic reminiscences of primitivist approaches in museum displays, the colonial history could even arguably be considered as partially interiorized, even embodied, by certain objects. These works could then be understood as hybrid testimonies of a past which cannot be merely exorcized through mourning, or the notion of melancholia, but which could rather be critically examined and investigated in order to open up new possibilities in exhibition-making.
Confronted to the issues raised by the concept of melancholia in relation to the negotiation of the colonial history, one would indeed need to find other approaches to think and represent the colonial heritage within the museum space. In this aspect, the concept of hauntology, coined by the philosopher Jacques Derrida in his book Specters of Marx, first published in 1993, might appear as particularly insightful in thinking the disjointed temporality implied by the simultaneous presence and absence of the colonial past within African art museums in France. Although the notion was first developed in relation to the legacies of Marxist theory, it has since been successfully applied to other domains such as cinematic studies, literature or postcolonial thought, underlying the deep resonance of the concept with various mediums.105
In his text Derrida explains how:
―To haunt does not mean to be present, and it is necessary to introduce haunting into the very construction of a concept. Of every concept, beginning with the concepts of being and time. That is what we would be calling here a hauntology. Ontology opposes it only in a
movement of exorcism. Ontology is a conjuration.‖106
In other words, the philosopher introduces hauntology in opposition with the concept of ontology, the science of definition concerned with the nature of being, while playfully stressing the acoustic similarities of the two terms. As a result, hauntology is an elusive notion that refers to a state of temporal disjunction, allowing for the simultaneous presence and
105
For a thought provoking example of ‘hauntology’ used as an analytical concept in relation with postcolonial literature, and more precisely the legacy of slavery, see Craps, 2010
106
39
absence of the specter, or ghost, which is neither fully confined to the past, nor entirely active in the present. In Derrida‘s terms:
―haunting is historical, to be sure, but it is not dated—never docilely given a date in the
chain of presents, day after day, according to the instituted order of the calendar‖107
In fact, hauntology refuses the perception of time as a linear and chronological process, to rather propose the idea of a temporal dislocation, which could perhaps be thought in relation with Bhabha‘s conception of time, as evoked in the previous part.108
Furthermore, regarding the argument developed in this thesis, the understanding of colonialism and post-colonialism as successive clear-cut temporal frameworks is indeed problematic. In fact, as it has been briefly explained in the first chapter of this thesis, the prefix ‗post‘ tends to imply the end of a particular period and the beginning of a new one, namely the colonial, followed by the post colonial, times. As a result, post colonialism might be understood as an ambiguous theoretical time-frame, denying the continuity of colonialism in the present, while being precisely focused on its contemporary consequences and effects.109 As a result, Derrida‘s hauntology might then appear as a particularly promising metaphor in thinking these paradoxes.
Through the notion of hauntology, the philosopher also refers to psychoanalytical perspectives on memory and trauma, while attempting to move beyond them. Indeed, rather than taking on an ‗ontological‘ approach aiming at exorcising the specter, Derrida urges us ―to learn to live with ghosts‖110 instead, and to refuse to relinquish their stories to the past, in an ongoing movement of re-examination and concern for justice.111 As a result, rather than perceiving haunting as a pathological state, Derrida argues for its disruptive potentiality, as a tool to think beyond restrictive and maladjusted temporal frameworks.